Car theft rings use cloned key fobs and antennas to steal vehicles worth millions

TLDR:

• Thieves are using handheld antennas to hijack key fob signals from outside victims’ homes, starting cars without breaking in
• Stolen vehicles are more profitable than drugs — averaging $50,000 per car versus $35,000 per kilo of heroin, with lighter legal penalties
• Organized crime groups use prison-gained knowledge to clone key fobs, scrub VINs and create fake documents to resell stolen vehicles
• A Queens operation stole 120+ cars worth $4.6 million; a St. Louis ring can move or strip a vehicle in just two days

Car thieves have ditched screwdrivers for something far more sophisticated: handheld antennas that let them steal your vehicle without ever touching it.

Police say criminals are standing outside homes, using antennas to hijack the signal between a car and its key fob, tricking the engine into starting. They then plug in a key programmer that teaches the vehicle to recognize a cloned fob.

“These are tools that locksmiths use, but criminals learned how to use it, and now they’re starting up cars and stealing cars with it,” said Tom Burke, a former New York Police Department detective who specialized in auto theft.

The driving force? Simple economics. Mr. Burke said organized crime has discovered that stolen cars are more lucrative than drugs, with new vehicles averaging $50,000 compared to $35,000 per kilogram of heroin. The legal consequences are lighter too.

“There’s more money made in the stolen car industry than there is in drugs,” Mr. Burke said.

These aren’t joyriding teenagers. Organized crime groups use knowledge gained in prison to scrub vehicle identification numbers and produce counterfeit documents, quickly reselling stolen vehicles nationwide and abroad.

In Queens, New York, prosecutors charged 20 people in thefts of more than 120 cars worth $4.6 million.

Read more:

• Cloned key fobs and antennas are powering a new wave of car thefts in U.S.